764 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. :5. 



any particular hive, not exactly that "it 

 wouldn't make any difference what kind of a 

 hive." But will he please tell us ivhy he thinks 

 the bees are piling in the honey in the small 

 hives and doing little in the largo ones? And 

 if the hives are changed, will the bees change 

 their deportment? 



Let up a littlp:, friend Root, on the Elec- 

 tropois? people, and go for the religious papers 

 that advertise it just because they make money 

 by it. ["'Let up ! "— My, oh my! You are 

 using slang. But he is " going for " the relig- 

 ious papers. Notwithstanding that he has 

 written letter after letier to those same publi- 

 cations, some of them still persist in putting 

 the ad. in. Is it the almighty dollar that is at 

 the bottom of it? God forbid.— Ed.] 



In Centkalblatt is given the following 

 plan, discovered by Prof. Landolt, to detect 

 paraffine in beeswax. Into a porcelain dish 

 pour over a small piece of the mass sulphuric 

 acid, and heat it, whereby the wax becomes 

 blackened, and swells up through the gas gen- 

 erated. When the generation of gas ceases — 

 which is stronger, the less paraffine is present — 

 heat the mass again a few minutes and let it 

 cool. If paraffine is present it will be found as 

 a transparent stratum, easily separated from 

 the surface of the black liquid. 



Sweet clovi^k. So much testimony has come 

 in to show that sweet clover is a good honey- 

 plant that more is hardly needed unless to show 

 that it yields enough to occupy the ground for 

 honey alon^. The testimony now needed is, to 

 show that it is a good forage-plant. Let that 

 once be established, and we may see it come in- 

 to general cultivation. [Hoth facts are, I 

 think, well established ; but the trouble is, the 

 world do(^s not know it. If the writers on bees 

 for the agricultural press would take pains to 

 emphasize them it would help the world to 

 know it. — Ed.] 



So, Mr. Ernest, in estimating 'the average 

 yield you don't count failures. (See p. 691.) If 

 a colony yields 25 pounds every alternate year, 

 and the other years has to be fed 25 pounds to 

 make it pull through, would you say the aver- 

 age yield was 25 pounds? Now will you " yield"? 

 [No, I just won't. Your locality seems to be 

 blessed (?) with a series of off years. In most 

 localities, and especially with the small bee- 

 keepers, the seasons when the bees yielded ab- 

 solutely no honey and have to be fed 35 lbs. 

 are rare. Your supposed case is a rather ex- 

 treme one.— Ed.] 



Say. Ernest, in speaking of the crock feeder 

 on page 745, why do you say, "Be sure the 

 crock is level full"? Doesn't it work all right 

 if only half full? [Unless the crock is clear 

 brim full of sugar and water when it is in- 

 verted with the plate, a lot of the liquid will 

 escape, owing to the air in the space not filled. 



The sweetened water will bubble out and run 

 down over the combs and bees, until atmos- 

 pheric pressure on the outside equals the down- 

 ward pressure of the sugar and water in the 

 crock. When it is full the leakage does not 

 take place. — Ed.] 



That headline on p. 732, "Bees Necessary 

 for Strawberry-fruiting; indisputable proof," 

 looks as though the matter were fully settled. 

 But what's to be done with the hundreds of 

 acres producing good crops of berries, and hard- 

 ly ever a bee to be seen? Doesn't that head- 

 line need a little tinkering? [Perhaps so. But 

 we have mountains of proof ihat the bees work 

 on the blossoms. If we reason by analogy, 

 that is, consider the value of bees on other 

 fruit-blossoms, we must admit a good deal. 

 The heading in question had reference partic- 

 ularly to the article under it.— Ed] 



V/M. G. MALIN. 



SKETCH PREPARED BY HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, 

 THE REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH. 



My acquaintance with the late W. G. Malin 

 began more than sixty years ago. It was form- 

 ed under very painful circumstances; and his 

 consideration and kindness quickly won my 

 heart. From that time till his death, in 1887, I 

 knew him well. In June, 1855, he married my 

 sister, Anna Louise Langstroth, second daugh- 

 ter of the late John G. Langstroth. She died 

 Nov. 5, 1855. I am now in my 85th year, and I 

 can truly say I never knew a better man. The 

 extracts from the history of the Pennsylvania 

 Hospital tender any further testimony to his 

 worth quiie unnecessary. 



* For nearly six- 



ty consecutive 

 years in the em- 

 ployment of the 

 same institution 

 as clerk, librari- 

 an, and steward ! 

 What volumes of 

 eulogy does such 

 a career speak, 

 both for Mr. Ma- 

 lin and the man- 

 agers of that in- 

 stitution! Where 

 can a parallel be 

 found? 



The son of a 

 small farmer, 

 with very few educational advantages in his 

 early life, how truly remarkable was his ca- 

 reer as a self-made man! I need but refer to 



WM. G. MALIN. 



